- Yak was flying all night. Looking more and more like last year's version.

- Loved Nuge's going back at I think Nikitin in the third after he got taken hard into the boards. Was really worried in the offseason about Nuge's size in today's NHL, but he's packed on some muscle and shows some nice push back this year.

- Happy for Dubie.

- Not sure what it would take to pry him out of there, but man would Foligno look good on the Oilers.

MagnumMessages: 3862Registered: June 2009
Location: Out for Lunch with Craig ...

3 Cups

I don't always double post the same picture in one day. But when I do, it's one that I used to shame posters who call down Ryan Smyth earlier in the day, when later in the day he has a three point game.

Very happy with the win but not reading too much into it other than hopefully it boosts their confidence. They still have had a very, very ugly year and one statistical aberration doesn't cure that. Beat a good team like Anaheim, LA, Phoenix, Chicago like this and I will be happier.

I love how Smytty worked his tail off all night and got it done everywhere. I am in total agreement with Magnum. I was there and you have just got to love Yaks 2nd star celebration, Ill admit he wasnt impressing me in the beginning of the season but his enthusiasm is winning me over. He was waving his stick wildly and riling up the crowd, this is a kid who loves to play.

I thought the Oilers might have a decent chance to win this one, but didn't expect this.

I don't know if it was more the Oilers were doing or the appearance that Columbus brought nothing tonight. Regardless, easily the most complete and best performance of the season for a number of players and for the team.

The Oilers got on them early and never let up. Columbus was made to pay for their penalties with the PP lighting up for 3/4. No passengers, and foot on the gas all game.

Even the 4th line, including the unskilled face-puncher, played pretty well.

Nice to watch, and the noise at Rexall over the dying seconds hopefully gave the players a taste of how appreciative this market would be of a good hockey team.

God Bless you Doug Armstrong, for giving up David Perron. The guy is a keeper.

Loved Yak's 2nd star celly at the end of the game! love the ego, its good for the team for sure

"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.” - Jacques Plante

Loved Yak's 2nd star celly at the end of the game! love the ego, its good for the team for sure

What did he do? Didn't stay for the stars...

"[It was] really cool to throw on the Oilers gear, the gear that I want to play the rest of my life wearing. It was pretty cool to put it on. With all the history, it was a lot of fun." - Connor McDavid, July 1, 2015

Ah! You missed it, He go out, was twirling whatever thing he was throwing over the glass around and around, threw it.. then started twirling his stick around and around in the air, with his other hand gesturing us to cheer hahah

"Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.” - Jacques Plante

Ya know, they've had the same game announcer for many decades now. He's clearly a reason why the Oilers aren't winning, why was he spared from one of the Great Cultural Purges that's had everyone turfed except for Lowe and Moss?

Ya know, they've had the same game announcer for many decades now. He's clearly a reason why the Oilers aren't winning, why was he spared from one of the Great Cultural Purges that's had everyone turfed except for Lowe and Moss?

Yak is acting like a guy who wants to WIN. Eakins needs to find a way to channel that fire consistently, not to mention stoking it under the rest of the team night after night. Nothing pissed me off more than watching the team just sleepwalking their way through games during that last month of godawfulness.

"There's no greater springboard to development than failure." - Craig MacTavish, April 13/15.

5-14-6-1

"Sabres think the suck is their ally? They merely adopted the suck. The Oilers were born in it...molded by it."

If there is a single positive that can be taken from the Oilers season so far its the PRV for Perron trade. Absolute steal for MacT.

Oh and Neilson on the radio just now regarding Perron and the highly effective Gordon, Smyth Perron line....

"In an ideal world the oilers wouldnt have Ales Hemsky so he(Perron) could slot in on the second line..."

My god are these guys fools. I really wish I could be an NHL hockey fan in this city and not be subjected to the idiocy of our media.

Yes less good players. Thats what the Oilers need.

Yah, personally I thought it was nice to have three line dangerously clicking last night. Thought Hemsky and Yakupov showed really nice chemistry together.

I like having three lines that can threaten. Ideally, I'd like to see it four lines, but with Arcobello missing the blowout, I expect they'll keep him on the sidelines even longer.

I was irritated to see the AHL fourth line play as much as they did last night. I figured in a game like that, Eakins could have rewarded the fans and really gone for double digits, or he could have rewarded Perron and tried to get him his hat trick, or he could have rewarded Dubnyk, and played lines that gave him the best chance of preserving the shutout (which he did anyhow), but instead he decided to reward the non-NHLers on our fourth line, sending them out over and over.

Now, it didn't matter really last night - the Oilers were going to win in a laugher from early on, and the Blue Jackets seemed to have lost the will to live, but if you're dressing 4 minute a night players, I don't see any good reason to play them more in a game like that. You're robbing the fans, and you're taking opportunity away from your scorers (who were playing lights out) to really run up the score.

As for the Don Cherry thought that it's bad to run up the score? This is the big leagues. If you don't like us scoring on you, then don't let in so many goals.

It's a 7-0 game and you're irritated? Time to take a break, Adam. Not saying you can't find some negatives in a great game, but complaining about the fourth line's icetime in a 7-0 win is nitpicking at its finest. As much as Eakins has said he wants his top players able to play big ice, this might have been the first time this season, he's been able to roll all four lines. Might as see if those guys can handle a little extra ice in a blowout than find out they can't when you need them in a tight game down the road.

OH MY GAWD!!!!! Is that Connor McDavid's music. He's not supposed to be here!

It's a 7-0 game and you're irritated? Time to take a break, Adam. Not saying you can't find some negatives in a great game, but complaining about the fourth line's icetime in a 7-0 win is nitpicking at its finest. As much as Eakins has said he wants his top players able to play big ice, this might have been the first time this season, he's been able to roll all four lines. Might as see if those guys can handle a little extra ice in a blowout than find out they can't when you need them in a tight game down the road.

They can't handle extra time in other games. I did find myself worried they would blow the shutout though - something Dubnyk did need for his confidence - and I wanted to see more Perron in the third period. I hate when coaches pull back on a guy who's clearly flying. If I'm coaching that game, Perron goes over the boards for 7-8 minutes of the third until he completes his hat trick.

I know it's nitpicking, and I know we didn't need either a shutout or a hat trick. I also acknowledge that if we had real NHL players on the fourth line, I wouldn't have been as irritated by it. It's pretty minor in the overall scheme of things, but I definitely noticed that they were playing as much as anyone in the third period and that Gazdic set a career high for minutes played in a game, while I would have preferred to see more of the actual players and an attempt to get Perron his third.

It's a 7-0 game and you're irritated? Time to take a break, Adam. Not saying you can't find some negatives in a great game, but complaining about the fourth line's icetime in a 7-0 win is nitpicking at its finest. As much as Eakins has said he wants his top players able to play big ice, this might have been the first time this season, he's been able to roll all four lines. Might as see if those guys can handle a little extra ice in a blowout than find out they can't when you need them in a tight game down the road.

They can't handle extra time in other games. I did find myself worried they would blow the shutout though - something Dubnyk did need for his confidence - and I wanted to see more Perron in the third period. I hate when coaches pull back on a guy who's clearly flying. If I'm coaching that game, Perron goes over the boards for 7-8 minutes of the third until he completes his hat trick.

I know it's nitpicking, and I know we didn't need either a shutout or a hat trick. I also acknowledge that if we had real NHL players on the fourth line, I wouldn't have been as irritated by it. It's pretty minor in the overall scheme of things, but I definitely noticed that they were playing as much as anyone in the third period and that Gazdic set a career high for minutes played in a game, while I would have preferred to see more of the actual players and an attempt to get Perron his third.

I agree with the others who think you're overreacting a bit to the amount of ice-time that the 4th line got last night. However, my agreement is based solely on the fact that the Blue Jackets suck donkey balls- see my first post in this thread for the reason why I know they suck. When you're playing a team that sucks, you can afford to play your short-bus kids more often than you would if you were playing against a real opponent. Those guys probably wear their hockey helmets off the ice too.

"There's no greater springboard to development than failure." - Craig MacTavish, April 13/15.

5-14-6-1

"Sabres think the suck is their ally? They merely adopted the suck. The Oilers were born in it...molded by it."

It's a 7-0 game and you're irritated? Time to take a break, Adam. Not saying you can't find some negatives in a great game, but complaining about the fourth line's icetime in a 7-0 win is nitpicking at its finest. As much as Eakins has said he wants his top players able to play big ice, this might have been the first time this season, he's been able to roll all four lines. Might as see if those guys can handle a little extra ice in a blowout than find out they can't when you need them in a tight game down the road.

They can't handle extra time in other games. I did find myself worried they would blow the shutout though - something Dubnyk did need for his confidence - and I wanted to see more Perron in the third period. I hate when coaches pull back on a guy who's clearly flying. If I'm coaching that game, Perron goes over the boards for 7-8 minutes of the third until he completes his hat trick.

I know it's nitpicking, and I know we didn't need either a shutout or a hat trick. I also acknowledge that if we had real NHL players on the fourth line, I wouldn't have been as irritated by it. It's pretty minor in the overall scheme of things, but I definitely noticed that they were playing as much as anyone in the third period and that Gazdic set a career high for minutes played in a game, while I would have preferred to see more of the actual players and an attempt to get Perron his third.

I agree with the others who think you're overreacting a bit to the amount of ice-time that the 4th line got last night. However, my agreement is based solely on the fact that the Blue Jackets suck donkey balls- see my first post in this thread for the reason why I know they suck. When you're playing a team that sucks, you can afford to play your short-bus kids more often than you would if you were playing against a real opponent. Those guys probably wear their hockey helmets off the ice too.

It really was a throw-away comment. I don't like seeing them on the ice, and I would have preferred the extra five minutes used to get Perron his trick, but at the end of the day, I'm happy we won, much more happy we won than I am upset that Acton and Gazdic are still on the team.

If there is a single positive that can be taken from the Oilers season so far its the PRV for Perron trade. Absolute steal for MacT.

Oh and Neilson on the radio just now regarding Perron and the highly effective Gordon, Smyth Perron line....

"In an ideal world the oilers wouldnt have Ales Hemsky so he(Perron) could slot in on the second line..."

My god are these guys fools. I really wish I could be an NHL hockey fan in this city and not be subjected to the idiocy of our media.

Yes less good players. Thats what the Oilers need.

Yah, personally I thought it was nice to have three line dangerously clicking last night. Thought Hemsky and Yakupov showed really nice chemistry together.

I like having three lines that can threaten. Ideally, I'd like to see it four lines, but with Arcobello missing the blowout, I expect they'll keep him on the sidelines even longer.

I was irritated to see the AHL fourth line play as much as they did last night. I figured in a game like that, Eakins could have rewarded the fans and really gone for double digits, or he could have rewarded Perron and tried to get him his hat trick, or he could have rewarded Dubnyk, and played lines that gave him the best chance of preserving the shutout (which he did anyhow), but instead he decided to reward the non-NHLers on our fourth line, sending them out over and over.

Now, it didn't matter really last night - the Oilers were going to win in a laugher from early on, and the Blue Jackets seemed to have lost the will to live, but if you're dressing 4 minute a night players, I don't see any good reason to play them more in a game like that. You're robbing the fans, and you're taking opportunity away from your scorers (who were playing lights out) to really run up the score.

As for the Don Cherry thought that it's bad to run up the score? This is the big leagues. If you don't like us scoring on you, then don't let in so many goals.

And If one of the big 5 had a major injury in their 23rd min of ice time playing garbage meaningless minutes then what? Who is robbing the fans? Keep your Stars fresh, let the 4th line develop some things, ride your horses when you need them. No need to burn them out in a blow out.

It was a good game for the Oilers but only one game. This team has shown before they can blow out teams in a meaningless game (see last 2 games last year).....and when we are this far out of a spot it is almost meaningless. This team has a huge mountain to climb still if they want to come back. Its a step in the right direction but without 10 more very quickly it could only be a one game aberration. This team has to play much, much better but at least there has been a pulse finally. Lets see what we can do vs San Jose, or Anaheim, etc. Eastern teams in general suck. When I looked yesterday, not a single eastern team would have a playoff spot in the west......

And If one of the big 5 had a major injury in their 23rd min of ice time playing garbage meaningless minutes then what? Who is robbing the fans? Keep your Stars fresh, let the 4th line develop some things, ride your horses when you need them. No need to burn them out in a blow out.

Oh, and there's no "development" for Acton and Gazdic. They're too old to have any realistic hopes that they're going to get better. Acton's 26, Gazdic is 24. They're never going to be anything but fringe NHLers at best.

And If one of the big 5 had a major injury in their 23rd min of ice time playing garbage meaningless minutes then what? Who is robbing the fans? Keep your Stars fresh, let the 4th line develop some things, ride your horses when you need them. No need to burn them out in a blow out.

Oh, and there's no "development" for Acton and Gazdic. They're too old to have any realistic hopes that they're going to get better. Acton's 26, Gazdic is 24. They're never going to be anything but fringe NHLers at best.

Martin St. Louis never had a full season in the NHL until he was 24. Taylor Fedun and Mark Arcobello are both 25.

These guys might be outliers, but there are late bloomers, and I think it's not quite fair to write someone off simply because of their age. I don't believe in Acton or Gazdic, don't like them on the fourth line, but if ever there were a time to play that line, it is in a 7-0 game.

Put another way, I might not want them in the lineup, but if they're going to play, I'd rather it was in a 7-0 game than in a 3-2 game.

I like having three lines that can threaten. Ideally, I'd like to see it four lines, but with Arcobello missing the blowout, I expect they'll keep him on the sidelines even longer.

I was irritated to see the AHL fourth line play as much as they did last night.

Hate to break it to you, but this ain't the Olympic Men's team, and there exists a salary cap.

MacT and Eakins can swap and swap pieces in and out of their 4th line, given cap circumstances, and in reality it's not going to have the positive or negative effect to the outcome of a hockey game that other areas of the team are going to experience.

In the vast majority of circumstances, in this league, a "skilled" 4th liner is called a 3rd liner. Sure there are good 4th liners in the league at a bargain price, but eventually if they're that good they migrate up in icetime and pay grade.

I'm truly worried you're going to rupture a nut when MacIntyre is healthy and draws in for a game. Adam, find another crusade. Please.